1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, in one exemplary aspect, the present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for implementing automated forwarding of communications across multiple profiles over one or more telecommunications networks.
2. Description of Related Technology
Call forwarding is a system in which calls directed to one number are instead directed to a second. This allows users of call forwarding to maintain multiple phone numbers all of which may be answered at a single number. Thus, it becomes simple to manage multiple numbers with a single device or subscriber line.
Instead of maintaining a local switchboard to ensure that all calls to any of the forwarded numbers are properly directed, the switching is handled by the existing infrastructure of the telecommunications provider. Thus, a user that does not wish to maintain in-house (or on device) switching capabilities may still take advantage of the benefits of call forwarding. Forwarding may be applied in virtually all telephone and messaging technologies including mobile systems.
In the related field of mobile telecommunications, current mobile technologies make use of subscriber identity modules (SIMs) to store profiles and other configuration information. These SIMs are typically embodied in a card-like form factor, and allow users to reconfigure phones quickly. Insertion of different SIM cards even allows a user to switch among different mobile carriers. Often, all that is required to switch carriers is that the user power off the device, replace the SIM card, and power on the device. A single mobile device may behave entirely differently depending on the SIM card that is active in the device. Using different SIM cards a device may connect to different mobile carriers, and answer to calls to different phone numbers. Thus, as user maintaining multiple SIM cards may answer calls from multiple numbers on a single device by changing the active SIM card in the mobile device.
In some cases, a caller may be trying to contact a mobile user, but the number the caller is contacting may not currently be active. For example, the mobile user may have a SIM card associated with a second number active in his mobile device, while the SIM card associated with the number that the caller is attempting to contact is removed or inactive. In this case (and others), the caller's communication (e.g. voice call, SMS, MMS, etc.) is not directed through to the mobile user. A user may switch between two or more active numbers regularly, but may also wish to have some or all communications directed to any of the multiple numbers associated with the respective different SIM cards forwarded to the (then) active number.
Currently, upon switching SIM a user must manually setup call forwarding, inform their contacts that their active number has changed, or rely on the foreknowledge of their contacts to predict when such changes will happen. This is impractical given that a user may maintain large groups of likely contacts and may switch SIM cards multiple times in a given day. Thus, there is a salient need for methods and systems for automated identification of such number switching events to enable reliable and automatic forwarding of communications to an active number.